Rankin- Seven photographs that changed fashion.

On Wednesday we watched a documentary about photographer Rankin who recreated seven images by the most powerful fashion images of the Twentieth Century. These included an iconic Cecil Beaton image taken in 1934 'Hat Box', a 1950's Vogue cover by Erwin Blumenfeld, a 1955 image shot by Richard Avedon of 'Dovima with Elephants', a 1963 image of Jean Shrimpton captured by David Bailey, the iconic image of Helmut Newton's, Rue Aubriot, Vogue 1975, Herb Ritts' 'Fred with tyres' taken in 1984 and finally the Guy Bourdin, 1970 'Untitled' fashion photograph.

Cecil Beaton "Hat Box", 1934

For recreating the hat box image, Rankin chose to use Sophie Ellis Bexter as his model as he believed she had a similar look to that of Elsa Schiaparelli, the original model. Rankin spoke of the fact that when the original was shot, technology of the time wasn't as it is today, so he made sure the final image was deeply influenced by this fact. For this particular image, the use of a 10 by 8 camera was used, which shows the photographer an upside down image, so it proved that little more difficult than using a digital camera. Also, with using the 10 by 8, Rankin wasn't able to see the final image,  so he took the photograph with digital also to give him an idea how the image was looking. He states in the documentary the 10 by 8 image works better when looking at Sophie's expression and the camera alone evokes this sentimental sense compared to the digital image, this was down to the length of the exposure between the two cameras.

Erwin Blumenfeld "Vogue Cover", 1950

For this image, Heidi Klum was used as the face for the cover, for her uncanny resemblance to the original face in the image. Watching the shoot looked like it was fun, playful and quite simple. Heidi took on her role as the character really well but added her personality into the image aswell which I loved. The original image is heavily influenced by the surrealists: it portrayed initial links that fashion and art have, but with Rankin's recreational element for this image and Heidi's cheeky character Rankin gave the image a modern twist.

Guy Bourdin "Untitled", 1970

Rankin chose the fashion designer and model Daphne Guinness to reinvent the iconic look of this image, but compared to other remakes, the chosen model didn’t really share some similarities as the original model. The set choice really resembles the one from the original, the only difference being, the use of the red tight, I think it would have worked that little more effectively if the legs were bare like the original. The remake is also got a lot more dominant feel to it, a more sexual compared to the original.